Which Voice?
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom
the lion and the gazelle
Whichever voice you give heed to, you will be in agreement with.
Whoever’s voice is the loudest, you will give your attention to.
Isaiah 28:23 Give ear and hear my voice, Listen and hear my speech.
The Ephraimites are reproved and threatened for their pride and drunkenness, their security and sensuality. They are likewise reproved and threatened for their dullness and stupidity, and unaptness to profit by the instructions which the prophets gave them in God’s name, The rulers of Jerusalem are reproved and threatened for their insolent contempt of God’s judgments, and setting them at defiance and, after a gracious promise of Christ and his grace, they are made to know that the vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God with which they flattered themselves would certainly deceive them,
THEY listened to every voice ACCEPT the voice of the Lord.
Whose voice is the loudest? Whose voice are you giving attention to?
There are so many voices screaming at us every day.
Your own carnal voice– the voice of the carnal man and carnal mind, speaking doubt and fear
The voice of the enemy– telling you who you are and what you can do
The voice of the world– telling you how to live, what to do, how to act and what to say
The voice of the Lord– the small, still voice speaking truth
Whose voice will you give attention to?
- You own voice
When we are born again of the Spirit of God, we become a new creation in Christ, free from sin and bondage, yet we still have our carnal mind and carnal way of thinking.
Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
The carnal mind thinks fleshly, carnal thoughts and carnal ways.
the carnal mind focuses on how we used to react to things before the Lord came in.
Think about how you handled things before the Lord-
we would react inside of respond- we have knee jerk reactions
We reacted with fear, doubt, anger (lashing out), guilt
A reaction is instant. It’s driven by beliefs, biases and the prejudices of the carnal mind.
When you do or say something “without thinking” that’s the carnal mind running the show.
A reaction is based in the moment and doesn’t consider long term effects of what you do or say.
A reaction (the carnal mind) is survival-oriented and is on some level a defense mechanism.
I read this article in Psychology Today:
“left to its own devices the unconscious mind (carnal way of thinking) creates a whole library of beliefs, prejudices, biases, fears, and limiting decisions. Its main goal is to survive. So anything that might threaten survival becomes Public Enemy #1 to the unconscious (carnal mind).”
This is exactly what the Word of God tells us- the carnal mind with its way of thinking is in direct contrast to the Spirit
The carnal mind is all about, “how does this affect me?”
Please don’t think bad of me, I was a baby Christian (but still no excuse)
EX: stole from Gma to go on a mission trip
The answer to the carnal minded voice is to be renewed on a daily basis in accordance with God’s Word.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
A Christ-like response will be from a renewed mind in Christ.
A Christ response comes from a life of prayer- it’ll come from what you know about the LORD and His Word
A Christ response will take into consideration what will happen if you do/say something.
It weighs the long term effects and stays in line with Christian morals and values.
A renewed mind thinks of others more than self
- The voice of the enemy
You can recognize the enemy’s voice because he always speaks concerning our identity.
It’s the original sin-
the enemy’s voice works in lies and half-truths
Because the devil comes as an angel of light, his voice is subtle and SOUNDS good and it APPEARS holy
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
(Did God really say??)
Gen 3:4-5 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
I tell people this all the time-
If you do not KNOW who you are IN CHRIST, you will continually listen to the voice of the enemy.
A son makes decisions based on how to please the Father
An orphan makes decisions on how to please self
A son lives in the realm of safety and security- decisions will flow from a trust in the Father
An orphan lives in fear an doubt- decisions flow from anxiety and constant fear
A son lives in acceptance and inclusion into the family of God
An orphan lives in abandonment and isolation and alienation, resulting in a spirit of insecurity and jealousy like that of Cain
The Son lives in blessings
The orphan lives in competition
Ephesians 1:3-12
This is why Satan constantly attacks our identity in Christ.
Remember what he said to Jesus, “if you are the Son of God”
If he can get you to believe his lies concerning your identity, then you will live a life of insecurity and jealousy and ALL your decisions will flow from this voice.
- The voice of the world.
This is the voice of the false prophets who compromise with the world and its ways.
This is the voice screaming at you to tolerate sin and immorality
It is the voice telling you what love is and what love is not
It is the voice that constantly accuses your Christianity
If this voice is the loudest, you will give all your attention to it and you will follow its ways and patterns
James 4:4 Adulterers and[a] adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
This voice can be completely overpowering, it is pushy, boastful and proud. The world’s voice is loud and DEMANDING. It always demands its way, it is easy to recognize, but hard to avoid.
It taunts like Goliath:
1 Samuel 17:8-10 Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”
1 Samuel 17:43 So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
EX: talking with Nicky about a lady in her dad’s church
whatever voice is narrating in your head- you are going to give heed to that voice!
IF you pitch your tent in Sodom, you are going to give heed to the world’s voice!
We tend to fear the reprisal of man more than we fear God.
Revelation 21:5-8 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me,[b] “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
And He said to me, “It is done![c] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things,[d] and I will be his God and he shall be My son. 8 But the cowardly, unbelieving,[e] abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
This word “cowardly” means fearful, timid, faithless-Notice that the cowardly are named right next to the unbelieving
Isaiah 51:7 “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My law:
Do not fear the reproach of men, Nor be afraid of their insults.
Go back to the lion and the gazelle-
All these 3 voices make you the prey and so we are devoured by the lion
But we weren’t created to be the prey, we weren’t created to be gazelles,
we were created to be the lion!
Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.
- The voice of the Spirit.
This voice lives and move within the truth of God’s Word.
John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep[d] My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
If it is not in agreement with the Word of God, it is not the voice of the Spirit.
It is a still, small voice. Its gentle, not pushy but nudging you in the right direction
1 Kings 19:11-12 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
Can you hear His voice? Are you being quiet before the Lord?
Do you daily enter His presence and then sit and listen? Or are YOU constantly talking?
The HS is always leading you, but YOU have to drown out the other voices-
The times I made bad decisions, I drowned out the Spirit’s voice and gave ear to a different voice.
Are you bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ?
Your mind MUST be renewed and you MUST be born again- AND THEN
Are you constantly being FILLED with the HS, drawing on Him as your source?
John 7:38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
A river is a continuous watercourse- It begins at a SOURCE, Follows a COURSE and Ends at a MOUTH
If you get dry- you will have a hard time hearing is voice.
Luke 11:24-26 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
The ancients believed demons lived in the desert- “dry places” is also translated as “waterless places”
Water coming in without no outlet turns into a pond and becomes stagnant and bloated, dying grass
